thefinancialexpress.com.bd (10.08.2021) The Government of Bangladesh has allocated 17.83 per cent of the total budget for fiscal 2021-22 for Social Safety Net Programmes (SSNPs). The coverage is diverse; it includes programmes related to poverty eradication, education, health, infrastructure, disaster management, housing for the poor, amongst many. However, if we take out pensions and honorarium for the non-poor, educational stipends, agricultural subsidies and so on, the actual social safety net allocation comes down to 50 per cent.

ec.europa.eu (07.05.2021) Partners have signed up to the three 2030 headline targets set in the Commission’s European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan in a joint Porto Social Commitment.

This report comparatively reviews the national social security measures in response to COVID-19 crisis, analyse their effectiveness and long-term consequences, and discuss future challenges in improving the social security system. The report covers seven countries in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine.

Education et solidarité (15.02.2021) L’Ecole nationale supérieure de Sécurité sociale (EN3S), vient de lancer un tout nouveau programme intitulé : « une saison avec la Sécu ». Créé dans le sillage des rencontres « une journée avec la sécu », ce nouveau dispositif pédagogique est entièrement virtuel et s’adresse aux enseignant.e.s et leurs classes allant du second degré à l’enseignement supérieur en France. Son principal objectif ? Renforcer l’éducation à la solidarité et à la citoyenneté sociale.  

VOX, CEPR Policy Portal (04.11.2020) While few groups have weathered the Covid-19 crisis unscathed, recent evidence suggests that the damage has been especially extreme among the economically vulnerable. This column evaluates changing attitudes towards welfare spending as a result of the pandemic. The findings suggest that people living in areas most severely hit by the crisis are increasingly supportive of long-term reforms to the welfare system.

UNAIDS (26.08.2020) UNAIDS is calling on governments to strengthen HIV-sensitive social protection responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

People living with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) are being significantly impacted by COVID-19. Modelling has estimated the potential catastrophic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic with increases of up to 10%, 20% and 36% projected deaths for HIV, TB and malaria patients, respectively, over the next five years.

UNSDG  (July 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed serious fault lines and vulnerabilities in societies, institutions and economies all around the world. The Arab region, home to 436 million people, initially kept transmission and mortality rates lower than the global average but more recent trends are cause for concern, especially in light of fragmented health care and insufficient primary care in many countries. The pandemic has also magnified many decades-long challenges.

UNDP (23.07.2020) This paper provides estimates for a Temporary Basic Income (TBI), a minimum guaranteed income above the poverty line, for vulnerable people in 132 developing countries. A TBI amounts to between 0.27 and 0.63 per cent of their combined GDPs, depending on the policy choice: i. top-ups on existing average incomes in each country up to a vulnerability threshold; ii. lump-sum transfers that are sensitive to cross-country differences in the median standard of living; or, iii. lump-sum transfers that are uniform regardless of the country where people live.

CEPAL (02.04.2020) Esta reunión tuvo como objetivo compartir experiencias sobre el rol de los Ministerios de Desarrollo Social y entidades equivalentes frente a la actual crisis causada por el COVID-19. En especial, interesaba conocer cómo cada institución ha respondido a la pandemia en relación a tres puntos: i) los principales problemas socioeconómicos y prioridades de acción en protección social; ii) las dificultades, desafíos y aprendizajes en la respuesta a la crisis; y, iii) las necesidades de cooperación.

It is essential to understand ‘Who’ will be affected, ‘Where’, ‘How’ and ‘When’ to better understand the ‘What’ of the social protection response to COVID-19.